WITCH HOUSE

So, I'm going to try something new here; every Monday (or in this case Tuesday) I'm going to post something related to indie music and culture that isn't a record review. Instead of doing the whole "Throwback Mondays," which I'm just not feeling to be honest, I'd like to be open to post whatever strikes me that particular week, whether it be a "Throwback" column, a spotlight on some new video, song, group, whatever, or a commentary on music, culture and trends. I had prepared a rather lengthy essay concerning the use of the term "hipster" for my inaugural article, but after spending my creative juices Blogger did me a solid and decided not to save but a portion of my work. I was hoping to reconstruct that essay for this week, but then yours truly got nasty sick and I can't write for shit when I am sick, so instead I'm going to wuss out with this little spotlight on a few "witch house" artists that won't require a lot of writing that wouldn't be that good anyway.

So, "witch house." I have already gone on record condemning the use of this term as a pigeonhole for a genre, but over the past couple of weeks I have had more than a couple of people ask me what the hell "witch house" is, so rather than quibble about the use of that term and whether or not it's a real genre, I going to simply acquiesce to the use of this term for this column if only to demonstrate what people are talking about when they are talking about "witch house," as well as the fact that I am under the weather and not up for the fight. I will say that for my two cents "witch house" seems to be a blanket term used to describe artists who, in varying degree, combine Burial-like dubstep with darkwave electronics and can, at times, sound like the Crystal Castles. Again, not sure this is a genre other than a mutation of darkwave itself, but whatever. I will say that I have been digging hard on these bands a lot lately, but I dig hard on Burial and Crystal Castles and darkwave, so that isn't a surprise. Basically if you dig on any of those musical permutations, you will likely dig hard on these bands, who may or may not be exemplars of a new musical sub-genre with a really stupid name.

First up, the infamous Salem. They are currently at the head of the "witch house" pack, but for my money they are not nearly as dark as the name implies, and their addition of obnoxious chopped and screwed rap into the mix does nothing for me. Regardless they are the band of the moment, so check 'em out. This is an earlier single from the band, and the video is slightly NSFW in a serial killer murders and strips his victim sort of way.

Salem - "Skullcrusher"

SALEM skullcrush from SALEM on Vimeo.

oOoOO is probably the next most well known. The one man San Fran act whose proper name is Christopher Dexter Greenspan has enjoyed a couple of well received eps, so anticipation for a full length is bound to be high. At times his sound is a bit more indebted to dubstep and minimalist techno than any of the other artists and tends to focus as much on rhythms and beats as atmospherics.

oOoOO - "No Summer 4U"


Balam Acab is also a one-man project, this time of Alec Koone a student in upstate New York. His Myspace page rightly proclaims "There is no witch in this house." Koone makes beautiful and dreamy electronic music that sounds like chillwave slowed down to a crawl and played in the dead of the night. His "See Birds" ep is a must have and one that absolutely defies categorization, making it that much unfortunate that he gets put into the "witch house" box.

Balam Acab - "See Birds (Moon)"

balam acab - see birds (moon) from allblurry on Vimeo.

And finally White Ring. White Ring are my personal favorite of the bunch. The duo may be the only band that lives up to what I envision "witch house" would sound like if it weren't the creation of a music critic. The band is much heavier and darker than their peers, and not nearly as narcoleptic. There is a pulsating electro-punk heart at the center of White Ring's music that makes their sound more immediate than others. With only a single and an ep under their belt, the world needs a White Ring full length stat.

White Ring - "King"

WHITE RING "KING" from ∆ ∆ ∆ on Vimeo.